160 Miracles Ahead! 



aspirin, phenacetin, and sleep inducers like sulphonal and 

 veronal. The antiseptic properties of coal tar speeded up the 

 search for new antiseptics, of which crude phenol, carbolic 

 acid, was one of the first introduced, to be followed in recent 

 years by the amazingly effective sulfa drugs. Their use on 

 burns at Pearl Harbor against streptococcus infections and 

 against pneumonia and other diseases has already saved an 

 incalculable number of lives. Atabrin, vital substitute for 

 quinine, which is used by our fighting men in the tropics to 

 combat deadly malaria, is another coal-tar derivative. Improved 

 anesthetics also have been made from coal-tar chemicals. 



A Ton of Coal 



Every ton of coal coked in a by-product oven produces, on 

 an average, 0.7 ton of coke, 0.06 ton of screenings, 10,500 to 

 11,500 cubic feet of gas, 12 gallons of tar, 26 pounds of 

 sulphate of ammonia, 1.75 gallons of benzol, 0.55 gallons of 

 toluol, 0.24 gallons of xylol, and 0.5 pound of crude naphtha- 

 lene. These basic products can be broken down into the con- 

 stituents of explosives, plastics of many types, solvents, food 

 preservatives, insecticides, fertilizers, lacquers, "soapless soaps," 

 and countless other things vital to the war effort now and of 

 great utility in the future. 



Toluol is considered to be the most important product 

 recovered from coal. It is widely used during peacetime in 

 the manufacture of rubber cement, wood stains, paints, paint 

 and varnish remover, as a substitute for turpentine, and spe- 

 cial inks. Today most of the toluol is being converted into 

 TNT. Methanol, derived in part from coal, is a necessary raw 

 material for the manufacture of certain explosives, and aniline, 

 also obtainable from coal, is needed to make the tetryl used 

 as a "booster" in high-explosive shells. 



From benzol comes phenol which is used with air and 



